Tech

10 Educational Products and Services Worth Paying For

The kids are heading back to school, and you might be yearning for the days of spankin' new Jansport backpacks, Trapper Keepers and sharpened #2 pencils. Luckily, you're never too old to learn something new, and new tools, services and gadgets are making that clear.

From apps for kids to language-learning software to IRL learning environments, the tech community offers a slew of ways to learn new things. We've rounded up 10 products that are worth paying for, whether you're an infant or a geriatric.

Education Worth Paying For

Price: $19.95 per monthWhat it does: Kiwi Crate delivers a box of hands-on tools for kids to explore arts and crafts, science and their own imaginations.Why it's worth it: Kids get bored easily. With a new box covering a new topic every month, your kids are bound to be excited to learn. Box themes include dinosaurs, gardening, color and more. Think of it as Birchbox for education.

Price: $99.95What it does: It's a tablet for kids (ages 3 to 9) so they can play games and read e-booksWhy it's worth it: LeapPad2 Explorer has front and back cameras, more than 300 applications, including games, videos, music and creativity apps. Additional "cartridges" help kids develop more than 2,500 skills in subjects like reading, art, music, language and culture, science, geography, mathematics, health and more.

Price: $199What it is: An excellent Android tablet for kidsWhy it's worth it: This tablet has a 7" screen and 8GB of memory, so you can put a lot of learning at your kids' fingertips, and the tablet wirelessly syncs to your PC or Mac device. While the Nabi can do a lot -- play music, take pictures, etc. -- its potential as a learning device is what piques our interest. The Nabi helps kids master core fundamentals via gamification, and they get feedback along the way. The "chore list" and "treasure box" programs in the Nabi teach your kids right and wrong before they even enter kindergarten. Being a parent is hard enough; Nabi makes it a little easier.

In addition to work, there's also some "play" in the Nabi -- for $2.99 a month, your kid can get unlimited streaming of Saturday morning shows, like "Strawberry Shortcake," "Paddington Bear," "Sonic the Hedgehog," "The Busy World of Richard Scarry" and "Madeline."

Price: The iPad app is free; creating books costs $0.99 to $4.99What it does: Enables your kids (age 2 to 8) to read, create and share books and learn the craft of storytelling on an iPad.Why it's worth it: Storypanda is a great way for families to enjoy storytelling together and for kids to create interactive stories on an iPad. It received early funding from 500 Startups, which clearly recognized the potential for kid media consumption and creation. The app is stocked with story templates and animations, which form the foundation for your family's books. If your kid has friends who have the app, you can exchange books and restock the bookshelf with fresh material at will.

The Hot List highlights tech products that are worth splurging on, and it's presented by the new Acura ILX. With technology centered around your life and a design that pushes all the right buttons, luxury starts here.

Price: $2.99 on iPhone/iPod Touch, $3.99 on iPad What it does: Helps your 3-6 year old learn his ABCsWhy it's worth it: The letters of the alphabet are the building blocks of your children's language skills. Start them off on the right foot with a fun app that uses interactive literacy games to hone their skills and help them master the alphabet. For such an important part of their education, $3 is an easy price to justify.

Price: $0.99What it does: An interactive model of the Milky Way galaxyWhy it's worth it: Toss those painted styrofoam balls and dioramas. Space is hot right now, and Solar Walk will help you explore it in an interactive way. The app is packed with cool graphics, time lapse and information about 107 celestial bodies and eight videos. And, $0.99 is a small price to pay for the opportunity to geek out like this.

Price: One-time, 90-minute classes start at $30; interactive workshops begin at $75; Livestream classes and online videos start at $15; the 8-12 week courses offer much more in-depth instruction and begin at $3,000 a courseWhat it does: General Assembly is a network of campuses where aspiring entrepreneurs and curious minds can learn about tech, design and entrepreneurship.Why it's worth it: With locations in New York, London, Berlin, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston and Sydney, General Assembly campuses have become epicenters of innovation and inspiration for the next generation of disrupters. GA’s course calendar is a mix of one-off classes and deep-dive courses, and topics range from online advertising to presentation writing to web usability. These classes aren’t taught by talking heads but by people who have experienced success (and failure) in the space; recent speakers have come from Etsy, Google and Seamless. There’s always something new and exciting happening at GA, which opened its doors just last year and has already expanded to eight locations, serving the needs and wants of 14,000 entrepreneurs thus far. It's a great resource for those in the startup scene and for regular Joes who just want to know what wireframing is.

Price: Typically $30 a classWhat it does: SkillShare is a marketplace where those with skills and knowledge teach others with interest in a given topic areaWhy it's worth it: Let others in your community teach you about cooking, programming and entrepreneurship. Classes are curated by SkillShare's education team, and they're taught either in-person or online with in-person workshops; some courses are one-off, while others are more long-term.

If there's something you want to learn, it's likely that someone in your city has the skills and would like to make money by sharing them. Classes may take place in a co-working space, an office building or a coffeeshop, and the vibe is informal, yet fun -- people are there because they want to learn. It's also a great way to meet people in your neighborhood, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than "going back to school" in the traditional sense.

Price: $129.95What it does: Improves note-taking, and thus gradesWhy it's worth it: When you're sitting in lectures, it can be hard to keep up with the professor. The Echo smartpen is a pen that will record handwritten notes and sync them with audio, so students can record an entire lecture, then upload it to their computer and review handwritten notes and the original audio lecture in tandem. Digital notes can be stored on the computer, filed into folders (say, one per class) and shared with classmates for collaborative learning that will help everyone make the grade.

Price: $1399What it does: Teaches you a new languageWhy it's worth it: Rosetta Stone is a tried-and-true tool; it's the leading language-learning software in the world, and it's helped millions of people in 150 countries learn a new language. The software is meant to be "fun, easy and effective," which is exactly what you want when you're doing something as daunting as learning a new language.

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